Micah Kogo Edges Ben True at Falmouth Road Race

Ben True nearly missed making the U.S. team for the World Championships; his fourth-place finishes in the 5000 and 10,000 at the USA Track & Field Championships in June left him just behind the American trios that headed to Moscow.

So on Sunday, on the same weekend that Mo Farah kicked to victory in the men’s 10,000 in Moscow, True was instead on the line at the 7-mile Falmouth Road Race on Cape Cod. As Race Results Weekly reports, after another valiant struggle, he came up just short of a triumph in the race’s 41st edition, placing two seconds behind Kenyan Micah Kogo, the 2008 Olympic 10,000-meter bronze medalist, who won in 32:10. Kogo also won Falmouth in 2007. Third place went to Emmanuel Mutai, the bronze medalist for Kenya in the marathon at the 2009 world championships. Four-time U.S. Olympian Abdi Abdirahman was fourth.

The women’s victory, in a less competitive field, went to Joyce Chepkirui of Kenya, who led her nearly the entire race and reached the finish in 36:43. Britain’s Gemma Steel was well back in second in 37:07, with Kenyan Linet Masai a second behind her in third. The leading American, in sixth place, was Alexei Pappas, who was cheered on by her former Dartmouth teammate, NCAA 5000-meter champ Abbey D’Agostino. “I’m proud of it, but I’m ready for more,” Pappas said of her performance.

New England roads have been kind to Kogo and Chepkirui. A week earlier, they’d both triumphed at Maine’s Beach to Beacon 10-K.

From a field of 12,800 runners in this scenic seaside race, the men’s lead pack had dwindled down to five by the 4-mile mark. Although True had run 13:11 for 5000 meters this year and had led the United States to a silver medal team finish at the world cross country championships, Kogo was not familiar with him.

"I know some strong white guys like Ryan Hall and so many others. But today I didn't know this guy who was strong today,” commented Kogo. "He stayed with us until the last kilometer." There’s a hill that crests with a little more than 600 meters remaining in the race, and "I made my final break when I saw the last hill,” Kogo stated.

True’s runner-up finish was the highest placing by an American since Meb Keflezighi was second in 2008. "I'm definitely improving every year and hopefully I'll be able to come back and win it," True said of Falmouth.

Chepkirui and her compatriot Masai had gained a 20-second advantage on their closest pursuers in the women’s race by the third mile. But at the 4-mile mark, Masai could no longer keep up. "I am coming back from injury [a calf problem] so my body is not great now,” she explained. “I am still struggling, not feeling well but I hope I will feel better soon." Masai’s travails gave Chepkirui a solo trip to the finish. Steel, the runner-up at Beach to Beacon, caught Masai for second just before the finish line, and theorized, "I think it was my mental strength today to catch her. It's just a dream really to pull it out of the bag when it matters."

On the evening before the road race, the running action was at the Falmouth High School track, where professional fields assembled for the Falmouth Mile. Ben Blankenship jokingly referred to himself as the “biggest celebrity in the world right now” after he took the men’s race in 3:56.27. As Race Results Weekly reports, with 200 meters to go, Blankenship, in his words, “found a really good open slot [among the runners] and just held on for dear life." At the end, he was holding off Will Leer, who’d moved up from fifth to take second in 3:56.45.

Blankenship had originally declined a suggestion to come to Falmouth but “after a few workouts last week I felt really good about it and I came out and ran well," he explained. The reversal of his decision earned him $2,000.

University of Washington alumnus Katie Mackey, who lowered her 1500-meter best to 4:04.60 this year, was the women’s winner at Falmouth in 4:41.39 after a very slow 78.6 opening quarter. "This has really been a good learning year for me, and I have just really been focusing on not wasting energy during the race, being more gradual during the race and having that strong kick when it counts," noted Mackey. Heather Kampf was runner-up in 4:42.93.

Kampf, who trains in Minnesota, had declared, “Whatever happens tomorrow is a cherry on an already good trip” before she arrived in Falmouth, because the evening before, she had already won the Liberty Mile on the streets of Pittsburgh in 4:32, bettering the event record she’d set the year before and earning $4.000. Chelsea Reilly was four seconds behind her in second place. Williams College grad Macklin Chaffee upset Jordan McNamara by an almost imperceptible margin in the men’s race, as both were timed in 4:01. The USA Masters 1 Mile Road champions were the increasingly versatile and adventurous Magdalena Lewy Boulet (4:50), who is on the U.S. team for the World Mountain Running Championships in September in Poland, and Nick Berra (4:28).